


Stranded

by LikeAnEmployee



Category: RWBY
Genre: F/F, Work In Progress
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-07
Updated: 2019-07-12
Packaged: 2020-04-12 08:41:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 10,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19128508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LikeAnEmployee/pseuds/LikeAnEmployee
Summary: In an alternate timeline where the fall of beacon never happens and Weiss never attends Beacon, instead following in Winter's footsteps and becoming a specialist in Atlas' military, Ruby and Weiss meet for the first time on a mission. During the mission they become stranded in the wilderness and must learn to work together to survive.





	1. Meeting

“Woah...” Ruby said looking up at the behemoth before her. She had seen plenty of airships in her time, they were common enough, but Atlas’ ships tended to stand out among their contemporaries and this monstrosity stood in a class of its own. Despite which it was actually just about the least dangerous of the vessels in the busy dockyard. Unlike the various cruisers, carriers and flagships of Atlas’ fleet, all of which called this port home, the massive vessel Ruby stood in awe of was not a warship at all. What it was, was the single largest airship ever built and it had one purpose, to carry as much cargo as absolutely possible. The resource poor nation of Atlas had always relied on trade for it’s survival and this new class was meant to ensure that their ships not simply controlled but dominated that trade. There were those, even in industry driven atlas, though who claimed the ships represented arrogance on the part of their designers, surely something so massive could never fly and even if it could it would be too tempting a target for pirates or other vagabonds. The amount of dust a single ship could carry, if loaded with nothing else, represented an entire years’ worth of production from even the largest mines of the SDC. There were entire businesses worth less then that and it wasn’t as if something this large could be kept a secret, every criminal on Remnant would swarm it the moment it left Atlesian airspace. They could hardly pass up the opportunity. Which was exactly why Ruby was here. As a huntress, she had been hired to supplement the already considerable regular military forces provided to assuage these fears. Long term Atlas intended to use exclusively their own troops on the ships and hoped to move to primarily if not exclusively automated troops before long, but this was the maiden voyage of the first ship of this class and they weren’t taking any chances. In addition to Ruby, there were 8 other professional huntsmen and 30 soldiers led by one of Atlas’ famous huntsmen trained military “specialists” and that was just on board the cargo ship. The full convey would include two heavy cruisers and a few dozen lighter ships. There were also a handful of other cargo ships, but they were really just opportunistic merchantmen who figured they could attach themselves to the convoy for extra protection after all they were going that way anyway.  
“Watch it you idiot!” a voice cried as Ruby tripped over a few crates she hadn’t notice in her path as she admired the ship.  
“Oh sorry!” Ruby said “I wasn’t paying attention”  
“You weren’t paying attention?! You moron! These are dust crates you could have blown us up!” The voice continued Ruby looked up to see it was coming out of a young woman in a white dress, carrying a saber at her side.  
“Geez, I said I was sorry. Who do you think you are? bossy!” Ruby replied defensively  
“Me!?! Who do you think YOU are? How did you even get in here this a restricted area we’re getting ready to launch and I will not have you messing up my first command!” the woman retorted furiously  
“I’m Ruby Rose, professional huntress” Ruby answered proudly “I was hired to help protect this ship. You must be that what was it Lice Schmee? Person”  
“IT’S WEISS SCHNEE” Weiss shouted back “I am the Atlas military specialist in charge of that protection detail, and I do not believe for a second Atlas would hire someone like you.”  
“Listen ms. Specialist” Ruby sassed back making the title an insult “I didn’t even particularly want this job it’s just one my way back to Vale.”  
“What nobody in Atlas would hire someone as incompetent as you so you’re running home?” Weiss shot back  
“NO!” Ruby screamed “I got this job didn’t I? Besides I only came here in the first place because of rumors that a crime boss I’ve been tracking was making deals to acquire a bunch of dust but your police are so incompetent, especially when it comes to the Faunas quarters, I didn’t learn a thing “there are no dust smuggling operations in Atlas” psh yeah right! It’s coming into Vale from somewhere.”  
“Why you little… dolt!” Weiss shouted glaring angrily back at Ruby. Her rage was only made worse by the fact the infuriating red hooded younger woman had a point. She knew many of the police in Atlas were hopelessly corrupt and the only “police work” which was done in most of the Faunas quarters was to harass the residents not aid them. Which made countering Ruby’s attack difficult. Instead Weiss simply held her glare hoping to intimidate her supposed subordinate. Unfortunately, Weiss had very little formal authority over Ruby. She was in charge of all of the forces on the cargo ships which theoretically included the huntsmen but that was based more on the assumption that those huntsmen would willingly cooperate and coordinate with the military commander then any true power over them. It was Ironwood and the national treasury which negotiated their contracts and while it would be easy for Weiss to ensure Ruby was never hired again, Ruby clearly didn’t care. In theory, Weiss could probably still call up Ironwood and get her fired from this trip, but it was unlikely a replacement could be found at this point and it would reflect poorly on Weiss. Ruby was annoying and disrespectful, but Weiss didn’t really have any hard evidence, besides one clumsy trip, that the younger women wasn’t a competent huntress and without that evidence it would just look like Weiss didn’t work well with non-Atlas personnel. In any case, Ruby responded to Weiss’ glare by simply glaring right back. The two stared at each other for a moment, anger floating between them, before Weiss turned her back to Ruby with a huff and said “Whatever just go get on the ship. I shouldn’t need any of you huntsmen and I want the regular men to get in the habit of doing their patrols without you so just find a place to sit and stay out of the way, and out of my sight.”  
“Fine by me.” Ruby answered and stomped off to board the ship.


	2. Pirates

Ruby woke up with a start, a sudden shake had shifted the crate she was laying against and disturbed her. She opened her eyes to look around but all she saw was the same secluded section of the hold she had fallen asleep in. It was a quiet place deep within the maze of containers. Ruby had selected this spot initially so she could complain about Weiss to herself, where no one else could hear but she bored of that an hour or so into the voyage and sat down and eventually fell asleep. She was about to return to that sleep, concluding the shake had simply been turbulence, when something in the corner of her eye caught her attention. She wasn’t quite sure what it was, a flash of light maybe. She looked in the direction she thought it came from and for a moment saw nothing but then it happened again a flash of red light appeared and then was gone a few seconds passed and again it flashed. Ruby stood and stretched her mind still working its way full awake. As she did the ship shook again much more violently this time and a siren blared. “Enemies approaching. All hands prepare to repel boarders” a robotic voice announced. Any drowsiness Ruby had still been feeling disappeared instantly and she whipped out Crescent Rose as she charged toward the upper decks.

“What’s happening?” Weiss demanded stepping onto the bridge. She had been checking up on her patrols when the first heavy cruiser reported seeing unidentified ships over the general command com she wore on her waist, but she assumed it was just another trading convoy. They had passed one about two hours out of Atlas and she figured this was the same. The concerns about just how valuable a prize the convoy represented were fair but not even the infamous Constantine Pirates dared face off against one of Atlas’ heavy cruisers, let alone two of them. This whole operation was a formality as far as she was concerned, and she was mostly worried about ensuring the men under her command acted perfectly and that she got promoted to more important duties. She was sure the other ships would identify themselves in another minute or two and then pass by without incident and she continued with her business, but a minute had passed and then a second with no word and Weiss had started to worry. She left her inspection of the patrols and started toward the bridge. Finally, the second cruiser had announced they were engaging enemies and Weiss had started jogging as the red alert lights began flashing all over the ship. The fact it was the second cruiser reporting and not the first was not a good sign. On her way the signal for the merchant ships to break contact and run was announced and Weiss had broken into a full-on sprint a moment later the first shake occurred, it was light. Light enough it could have been turbulence, but she knew it wasn’t something had hit them. Not a weapon or not one intended for them at least, not if that’s all it caused but still… 30 seconds later a stronger impact shook the hull and the warning siren blared. It had taken Weiss only another minute to reach the bridge.

“They’re everywhere!” some one called in panic. It was the only response Weiss got.

“Damn it!” she shouted, “Someone tell me what’s going on!”

The first officer shoved one her subordinates back into his chair shouting “Hold your station!” and turned to address Weiss, who beginning to take in the chaos of the bridge, identified the captain standing over the helmsmen issuing orders, clearly he was too busy too brief her. Weiss turned toward the first officer at almost the same moment she turned toward Weiss

“here” the officer said gesturing toward a nearby screen full of icons clearly indicating the various ships in the area and Weiss moved to get a good look at it as the officer continued “we have boogies coming at us from the north and west the ships the lead cruiser announced are to the southwest, here” she pointed “and are currently engaging the second cruiser. The first cruiser is pulling back with damage. We have a handful of light craft covering us, but most are engaged with the second cruiser. We have no choice but to flee to the west. If we’re lucky we break back to the north with the retreating cruiser once we’re around the combat zone of the second and head back to Atlas. If we can’t get clear of the bogies to the north, we’ll have to continue east toward Mistral. I’m not sure any of that matters though, the ships to our south and west are closing fast and as you may have notice we’re already taking hits.”

“How?” Weiss asked in what wasn’t quite panic “how did they take out two heavy cruisers?”

“they didn’t neither cruiser is sunk, not yet anyway but they did catch us off guard. It was brilliant really two of the merchantmen attached to the convoy suddenly crashed into each other as the ships to the south sent signals indicating they were a trading convoy from Vale. In the confusion we were unable to confirm the ships were who they said they were. At the same time both cruisers closed in on the crashed ships to provide aid along with the three remaining merchantmen we kept our distance as there were enough cooks in that particular kitchen and our size makes us somewhat cumbersome for rescue operations anyway. It was a good thing too because as soon as everyone got close all three merchantmen moved to ram the other ships in the convoy one went for each cruiser and the remaining ship headed toward us. Fortunately, their timing wasn’t perfect the first cruiser was taken by surprised and effectively taken out of commission, she’s still flying and her captain is hoping he can get her back into limited action but so far all she’s been able to do is limp away from the main conflict. The second cruiser was warned by the collision with the first and managed to blow the remaining two merchantmen to pieces. We were far enough off to come out of that unscathed, but the second cruiser wasn’t so lucky. The merchantman targeting her managed to get close enough the explosion of her engines and resulting debris managed to damage the cruiser. She can still fight but between that damage and the fact that in all the chaos the ships to the south were able to close, negating the range advantage she would normal hold, she’s struggling to hold her own against ships she would normally slaughter. Still, it looked like she’d probably win in the end, and still does, especially with help from our own lighter ships so we held position instead of abandoning all military support and risking a second ambush, until the ships to the north and west appeared at which point the signal to run was given.”

“My gods.” Weiss said in shock

“Yes ma’am” the officer replied with feeling

“but why wasn’t I kept better informed?” Weiss asked offended and gesturing at the small radio on her waist.

“Ma’am this all occurred in a span of about 8 minutes, things were chaotic, the lead cruiser appears to have lost all communications and in all honesty the command line you’re on is a courtesy. You’ve probably only been receiving the emergency updates broadcasted on all frequencies.” The first officer who was technically lower rank but also many years older, more experience and in a different command structure then Weiss said respectfully, but with the slight air of someone informing a child the world didn’t revolve around them.

That made sense, Weiss had to admit, after all she wasn’t in charge of the ship, she was in charge of the men protecting the ship from boarders and guarding the cargo during loading and unloading. The undoubtedly frenetic details of the ships handling in the last few minutes had little to nothing to do with her and, she realized, while she needed to know what was going on so she could lead her men now that she did, she should get to doing that.

“Right.” Weiss said with a sense of purpose “I should get to my men then. I assume we’re expecting to be boarded?” she asked deciding the best thing for her was to take the advice of the officer before her who clearly knew what she was doing.

“Yes. We are over the continent now so it’s possible they’ll try to force us to land, or crash, first but if we crash there’s always the possibility some of the cargo gets destroyed and they won’t want that. Additionally, it doesn’t look like that’s what they’re going for, they could be hitting us a lot more but their limiting their fire and concentrating it on the engines, it’s slowing us but were unlikely to fall out of the sky anytime soon.”

“Good.” Weiss said boarding an airship in flight was no easy task the only real option was to come along side, match speed and jump onto the deck. Clever pirates had a number of ways to make the “jumping” part both safer and doable at greater distances, but the basic concept was the same. This meant that Weiss could concentrate all her troops on the deck and not worry about fighting over the entire massive hold and maybe just maybe if she could hold them off long enough for the cruisers to rally and come to their rescue, they would all survive this mess. 

“One more thing ma’am” The officer said as Weiss turned to leave “It’s impossible to be certain who these people are but I can only think of one pirate who could pull this off…”

“Constantine Firekindling” Weiss finished for her “I know”

“He’s devious and his men are vicious and experienced fighters,” she warned “be careful out there and good luck.”

“you too.” Weiss answered grimly and exited the bridge


	3. Boarded

“It’s about time Princess!” Ruby shouted as Weiss appeared on deck. She and one of the other Huntsmen who happened to be armed with a long-range rifle were taking shots at the closest ships but by and large their pursuers were still too far off to engage. Her men as well as the huntsmen had all gathered here as soon as the order to repel boarders had been announced and Weiss having stopped at the bridge was the last to arrive by a significant margin. She simply ignored Ruby’s jeer however and pointed at one of her non-coms

“You,” she commanded “go find whatever spare weapons and ammunition we have and get it just inside that bulkhead” she pointed “I don’t want to have to go far if we run out. Go quickly!”

“Yes ma’am!” he answered threw her a salute and bolted through the door

“alright listen up.” She said addressing the whole deck “Both cruisers are damaged. The lead cruiser has been forced out of combat and the second is engaged heavily. We’re on our own against these guys at least for the time being if we can just hold them off hopefully the cruisers will finish off the ships to the south and come to our aid. Until then we are the last defense and I will not let those pirates take my ship! Not one foot goes below deck is that clear!”

“Yes ma’am” the soldiers responded as one. The huntsmen on board reactions varied. Ruby and another huntsmen gave her dirty looks, three of the older huntsmen present simply shook their heads dismissively, a burly, stoic looking pair, who seemed to know each other, barely acknowledged the speech and the remaining two huntsmen actually appeared inspired by or at least enjoyed it.

Everyone took up defensive positions and before long the pirates started firing back. It started off with slow intermittent shots as the pirates longest-range weapons competed with Ruby and the other huntsmen for first blood but before long the tempo increased as more and more of the enemy came into range before long the whole deck was firing away at the incoming ships and bullets flew viciously in both directions. Slowly but surely holes began to emerge among the defenders mostly among the military personnel although at least one of the huntsmen was down as well. The pirates were losing more men then Weiss, but they also had far more to lose and worse the holes left on the deck meant she and a number of her men had to divert their attention to the steadily growing melee action as more and more pirates landed on board. Still, it was looking as if they might hold out after all. They were engaged with as many of the ships as the pirates could bring to bare at once and they were holding their own. She was losing men, slowly, but they hadn’t been overrun yet. It was working, she just had to keep this up until either the first cruiser made repairs or the second fought off the pirates to the south, she just wish she knew how long that might be.

“EVERYBODY GET INSIDE!” Ruby shouted suddenly, barely managing to raise her voice enough to be heard across the deck.

“Who said you could give orders!” Weiss shouted back furiously but Ruby was already at one of the hatches to the lower decks and the soldiers around her were following her lead

“Just do it!” Ruby shouted pointing at a ship which unlike the others running alongside them didn’t have anyone on it’s deck it was also moving perpendicular to those ships putting it on a heading directly into the side of their own ship. Ruby had seen the ship first as she had been focusing on using Crescent Rose’s range to demoralize the enemy. Peppering away at boarders who thought they were still safely out of harms way. She caught the ship as it started to turn towards them and immediately called for everyone to take cover. Now the ship was only seconds away and Weiss started shouting to her men

“Brace! Brace for Impact! Everybody Do..” she was cut off as the ship slammed into them near the bottom decks tearing a hole in their side. In what was certainly a minor miracle, even with the advanced warning, not a single person was thrown overboard and Weiss leapt back to here feet shouting to her troops in the minor lull in the fight the crash had created “They must be getting desperate” she laughed trying to improve morale “Everyone on deck hold your position everyone already inside follow me below we’ll make sure no one made it in the hole they just made” she had moved to the deck hatch Ruby entered through as she spoke and she turned to the troops on deck saying “I expect you all to still be holding this deck when I return” before jumping below.


	4. Criminal Empire

Four of Weiss’ men had made it into the hatch before the ship crashed into them and Ruby was the only huntress to make it inside. Damage appeared to be surprisingly minimal, the ship which rammed them had been fairly small and everyone’s best guess was the intention had been to open a second boarding point not to critically damage the ship. In any case there was damage on the three lowest decks but the biggest hole, and the only one largest enough to reasonable get someone through was on the second lowest deck. Weiss sent two of her men to first and third decks to confirm the damage to them was minimal and do sweeps to make sure they hadn’t missed anything. Ruby, Weiss and her remaining two men split up and carefully swept the second deck. Weiss wasn’t happy about relying on Ruby, but she had proven surprisingly competent on the main deck and she wanted as much man power as she could get checking this area for intruders, she was sure someone had to be here. Weiss stepped around a disheveled stack of crates and found herself staring out the large hole in the side of the ship. Large was a relative term in this case, in comparison to Wiess it was quite large, in comparison to the ship or to something you would want to jump through, from one moving object, onto another, while a few hundred yards in the air, it was fairly small. In either case it meant Weiss had covered her section of the deck and found nothing. As she stared out the hole, buffeted by the winds rushing in through it she heard a shot fire somewhere within the hull and turned toward it. A moment later a man came charging though the shadows, headed straight for the hole. Weiss hesitated, she could intercept him, but she was too close to the edge and he was moving too quickly if he simply plowed into her he’d throw them both off the ship.

“Stop you!” Ruby’s voice called from the somewhere to the side before she came flying from the same direction tackling the man to the side and stopping his charge. Ruby rolled back to her feet as she and Weiss took up positions between the man and the hole he clearly intended to use as an exit.

“Well, well little red fancy meeting you here.” The man said coming to his feet. Weiss still hadn’t managed to get a good look at him the light from the hole in the ship made the shadows within the hold difficult to pierce and the figure standing before her was little more than a silhouette, but his voice sounded familiar somehow.

“Torchwick” Ruby said grimly as the man stepped into the light with a tip of his hat. Weiss’ eyes went wide as she saw him, she knew where she’d heard that voice, everyone in the Atlesian military had listened to the taunt it left after the sinking of the “Nicholas”, named after none other then Weiss’ grandfather, that was a debt the entire kingdom was eager to repay.

“Torchwick?” Weiss asked baffled “That’s Constantine Firekindling infamous pirate leader you idiot!”

“What are you talking about he’s the criminal master mind I’ve been chasing, Roman Torchwick” Ruby answered 

“a-ha uhh guilty of both charges I’m afraid” Roman answered “you know how it is need, a new alias for each continent. We wouldn’t want you all realizing what an organization I’ve built. So, I like to keep my operations separate an eastern and western criminal empire if you will.”

“Well it looks like both will crumble when I take you back to Atlas.” Weiss answered

“umm you mean when I take him back to Vale?” Ruby asked angrily “I’ve been chasing him since I was still in school. He’s mine!”

“Easy little red there’s plenty of me to go around” Roman smiled and stepped back dodging a slash from Crescent Rose and disappeared into the shadows. Somehow, he reappeared to Weiss’s right kicking her over before rolling back into the shadows to her left. Ruby turned toward where he disappeared and fired a shot after him, but he reappeared again behind Ruby striking her with his cane. The impact threw her to the ground next to Weiss and Roman jumped over them both to stand at the edge of the hole. A second Roman stepped out of the shadows to their left and as he stepped passed them his appearance changed to that of a young woman with pink and brown hair. She shook her hips and smiled evilly down at them as she passed and stood next to the real Roman.

“You’re quite the pain little red” Roman said turning back to them “I was upset I was forced to do things this way it will mean a significant decrease in the profits from this little venture but permanently removing you from the picture might make up for it all. You should take that as a complement.” He reached over to hang onto the girl with the strange hair, who in turn opened the umbrella she was holding, and both shot out the opening in the hull as the wind caught it.

“Stop” Weiss shouted after them in vain, she turned to Ruby as both returned to their feet “This is your fault!” She cried accusatorily but before either could say anything more a massive series of explosions ripped through the ship throwing both back off their feet and sending them plunging toward the ground.


	5. Anyone... Else

“Please!” Weiss pleaded throwing a bit of wreckage aside. “please someone anyone” She continued running to the next pile and looking for survivors.

“Hey” a voice echoed from far away. Weiss looked up and scanned the woods trying to figure out where it had come from. “HEEEY someone help!” it continued, and Weiss narrowed in on a section of the woods taking off in that direction. Fortunately, the voice continued calling out “Heeellllp HEEY HELP ME!” and Weiss followed it. At first, she thought the owner was terrified, which was understandable enough, but as she got closer the tone of the voice reminded Weiss less and less of fear and more of someone pouting.

Weiss finally laid eyes on that voices owner and stopped dead in her tracks “I take it back” she said to herself, staring up at the sky “anyone but her!”

“HEY!” Ruby shouted back from where she was stuck in a nearby tree. Weiss looked up at her and wasn’t sure if the obnoxious girl was unreasonably lucky or unlucky. A piece of metal about the length of Myrtenaster’s blade but twice as thick and as wide as its hilt was pinning the younger girl’s hood to the trunk of the tree. Somehow in the process the same hood had wrapped tightly around Ruby encasing her in a sort of cocoon which prevented her from freeing herself. On the one hand the odds of all that happening so that Ruby was completely stuck had to be astronomical on the other if the shard had been only a handful of inches in the wrong direction the consequences could have been much more dire. “Would you just get me down already! I’ve been up here for like an hour.”

“Don’t be dramatic” Weiss complained pulling out Myrtenaster and casting a glyph on the tree/metal shard. “It can’t have been that long” she finished although she wasn’t entirely certain that was true. Somehow, she had made it through the explosion relatively unscathed, unfortunately she still found her self plummeting toward the ground. She had cast a number of glyphs to slow herself, but she still hit the ground hard. Hard enough to completely deplete her aura and knock herself unconscious. She wasn’t sure how long she had been out she didn’t think it was very long, but she didn’t know for sure.

She sent the metal shard flying and Ruby dropped to the ground with a thud “Ow!” Ruby complained rubbing the butt she had fallen on “you could have warned me”

“How did you even end up like that?” Weiss asked ignoring her complaints

“I… actually don’t know.” Ruby admitted “Something hit me in the head right after the explosion on the ship next thing I knew something whipped me awake the world was spinning and blurry and then I was stuck to this tree. I saw what I’m guessing was you based on that… thing you just did and started shouting for you to come help but that was like forever ago what took you so long?”

“I passed out when I hit the ground.” Weiss admitted “I’ve only been moving for a few minutes”

“That knocked you out?” Ruby asked incredulously barely stopping herself from laughing

“I fell out of an airship!” Weiss shot back angrily “What about you, you were knocked out too!”

“I was knocked out by an entire airship exploding.” Ruby replied defensively “you were just falling. We covered falling literally my first day at Beacon and by covered, I mean the headmaster launched us off a cliff and then went to see if we lived. That should have been nothing! I thought you Atlas specialists were supposed to be tough.”

“WE ARE!” Weiss screamed back “I can land safely from any height. “she continued still angrily but at a much less ear-splitting decibel “I was just, caught off guard. I was in the same airship you were, and I managed to get through the explosion without being hit on the head or being knocked out”

“That’s just luck and you know it!” Ruby shot back “Besides I still made it safely to the ground despite the explosion unlike you!”

“SAFELY!?” Weiss shouted “You were stuck in a tree! Wrapped up in that stupid hood. You would still be trapped in a tree if it weren’t for me!”

“Well whatever!” Ruby shouted back “at least I’m not a big meanie jerk faced…” she pouted on

Weiss opened her mouth to interrupt Ruby with an insult of her own, but both fell suddenly silent when a pack of beowolves howled menacingly in the distance

“It’s not safe here” Weiss said seriously their quarrel momentarily set aside

“I don’t think anyone else made it.” Ruby answered grimly “we’re stuck, with just each other.”

“Don’t remind me.” Weiss grated but then she sighed deeply and gave Ruby a look that was almost friendly “Come on let’s get moving there are mountains this way maybe we can find a cave to shelter in or at the very least use the high ground to try and get the lay of the land maybe get our bearings.”


	6. The First Night

After walking for a few hours Ruby and Weiss had found a small cave in the foothills of the mountain range. The attack had occurred in the late afternoon and by the time they reached the cave and checked it for dangers night was beginning to fall. They had bickered at every chance along the way disagreeing over exactly which way to go, who should enter the cave first and after every one of the handful of minor grim encounters they would bicker about the others performance in the fight. Still, they had managed to avoid any more screaming matches and despite themselves were slowly beginning to work together better and better. As the sun set, they bickered over who would take first watch as they collected fire wood for the evening, eventually agreeing to pick sticks from the pile of kindling they had gathered with the shorter stick taking first watch. One final bout over how to build and light the fire occupied them until night had fully fallen and Ruby, having selected the longer twig earlier in the evening found a semi-comfortable part of the wall, nearish the fire, to lay against and fell asleep. Some hours later Weiss roused her, in what Ruby found to be a surprisingly gentle manner, and Ruby took watch while Weiss slept. About an hour into her watch Ruby turned to briefly to tend to the fire and found Weiss had moved to lay just about as close to the fire as she safely could. Weiss lay with her back to both the fire and Ruby and despite how close she had gotten to the fire she shivered. The night, Ruby noted, had gotten decidedly cool and Weiss’s dress was almost certainly lighter and less warm then her own. Even in her warmer dress Ruby had taken to wrapping her hood around her as tightly as she could both while she slept and while she sat at the entrance on watch. Ruby quietly stoked the fire a little extra high trying to warm the small cave as much as possible and took her hood off and laid it gently over Weiss.

“What..?” Weiss said jumping slightly at the contact and rolling over to face Ruby

“Oh sorry!” Ruby said embarrassed “I thought you were asleep!”

“I was until you disturbed me.” Weiss lied “What are you even doing?”

“You looked cold” Ruby answered meekly

“Well I wasn’t!” Weiss answered defiantly shoving the cloak back to Ruby. “I don’t want your stupid hood” it was a another lie. She wasn’t cold enough to be in danger of hypothermia or anything like that, but she was chilly enough to make sleeping much more difficult. Not that she was ever going to admit that to Ruby. She was Weiss Schnee! She could take care of herself without any charity from some clumsy, probably poor, oaf.

“Yes, you were!” Ruby replied getting angry. “I saw you shivering. Just admit it!”

“I wasn’t shivering.” Weiss said “What do you even care? You must be cold too, sitting away from the fire keeping watch. Or were you just sitting right next to the fire killing your night vision and staring at me like some kind of creep instead of protecting us from grim.”

“I was not!” Ruby protested “This isn’t my first time spending a night in the wilderness I know how to keep watch. I’m not an idiot”

“You could have fooled me” Weiss grumbled back

“Why you…!” Ruby started to shout but didn’t know where she was going with it “Why?!?” she asked furiously instead “Why do you have to make everything a fight?! I was trying to be nice! I was trying to help and all you can do is yell and make fun of me!”

“I’m not the one yelling.” Weiss answered sassily

Ruby froze for a moment staring furiously at Weiss before whispering “Bitch” and turning away from Weiss, stomping toward the entrance of the cave to resume her watch. Ruby had said the word quietly to herself but in the small quiet cave it had been quite audible to Weiss and she began to chase after Ruby with a venomous retort but before she could even stand Ruby tossed her hood back at Weiss and it landed on her head

“just wear it.” Ruby said almost pleadingly but she hadn’t bothered to turn and face Weiss as she spoke and there was clearly still some anger lingering in her voice “you need your sleep, tomorrow’s not going to be easy.”

Weiss pulled the pile of cloak off her face and stared first at it and then Ruby with curious, stunned eyes. Ruby never even looked back she walked off as she finished speaking and took up position at the caves entrance. Weiss considered throwing the cape back at Ruby, a few viscous retorts boiled at the back of her throat she didn’t need Ruby’s help she told herself again, but she did need to sleep and the hood was so warm. She debated with herself for a moment longer if she wore the hood it would prove Ruby was right and yet… the younger women still hadn’t looked back hadn’t checked even once to see if she had won. Weiss would have, in Ruby’ place she would have been watching carefully waiting to claim her triumph as soon as she put on the hood but Ruby never looked back, she didn’t seem to care at all about rubbing Weiss’ blatant lie in her face which baffled Weiss. Weiss continued to hold the hood looking at it and trying to comprehend what had just happened and why but eventually she succumbed to her exhaustion and with the warm fabric wrapped around her she drifted off into a very conflicted sleep.


	7. Pretty Sights

Ruby sat and watched the sunrise over the trees. A heavy fog had risen when light had first started peaking through the branches but now as the sun crowned over the trees it dissipated revealing a beautiful sight. A heavy dew had settled across the forest and the leaves and ground seemed to sparkle in the morning sunlight. The fog and trees had blocked most of the strange brilliant hues the sky turns when the sun first arrives each morning, but the cave Ruby and Weiss had sheltered in sat above most of the surrounding terrain and her view went on for miles. It was all so very crisp and clear and seemed to almost glow back at her.

Ruby took in the sight with a smile, keeping watch was one of her least favorite huntsmening things and she appreciated any distraction. She understood why having someone keep a look out was important and she rarely if ever actually complained about it, it was all just part of the job after all, but it was also incredibly boring. Sitting there staring into the still night all by yourself for hours on end Ruby couldn’t think of anything which was any duller. Of course, dull could be a good thing when it came to huntsmening, as yesterday proved quite clearly, exciting often also meant dangerous. As Ruby’s thoughts wandered a weight suddenly fell over her head which she quickly identified as her hood. She looked up at Weiss who stood over her remarkably well groomed. Ruby sat in the entrance to the small cave with Crescent Rose in her arms. The hood now hanging off her head was covered in dirt and torn in various places including a rather larger hole where the shrapnel had torn through it to pin her to the tree yesterday. Her dress was in only slightly better shape protected slightly by the hood it too was becoming worn. Weiss’s clothes weren’t significantly better off but, while Ruby couldn’t be certain it looked like Weiss had taken the time to pick away at whatever stains she could, trying to rub away the worst of the grime. At the very least she had clearly scrapped the mud off her shoes, which Ruby thought was particularly silly they would be going back out any minute and the ground was extra damp now from all the dew. The biggest difference between Ruby and Weiss though was their hair. One of the primary reasons Ruby kept her hair short was it was easy to tend to and could get only so messy in the field. Still, after everything that had happened, she was sure it was a mess, she probably had hairs sticking out every which way and it was distinctly possible, although she hadn’t felt any yet, that she had mud, or some other gunk stuck in it somewhere. Weiss on the other had long hair which threatened to become unruly and escape the perfectly maintained pony tail with out regular and skilled attention. Despite this and the uncivilized conditions they found themselves in Weiss’s hair looked exactly the same as it had the first time Ruby met her. The small decorative hair piece she wore sat in the exact same position and her hair fell light and smooth. Ruby couldn’t find a single strand out of place and as she stared up at that hair, she realized for the first time, Weiss was very pretty.

“hmpf pshhh” Ruby snorted in laughter

“What!” Weiss demanded

“Your hair” Ruby laughed back

“What’s so funny about it?!”

“Well it’s just” Ruby started still chuckling but not entirely sure herself what she had found funny about it “It’s so pretty.” She continued with a laugh

“Wha…What that’s supposed to mean?” Weiss asked taken aback

“Well I mean” Ruby said suddenly embarrassed although she wasn’t entirely sure why “It’s just you did it really nice and you don’t even have mirror but” Ruby’s tone went back to being amused “look where we are” she gestured to the woods around her “it sorta seems I don’t know petty.”

For the second time in less than 8 hours Weiss had no idea how to respond to Ruby she blushed at the compliment and yet was insulted at the same time.

“Yeah well..!” Weiss started “Just because you’re a mess doesn’t mean I have to be!” in other circumstance it might have been a good come back, in these it sounded rather hollow even to Weiss

“pssh whatever, you took time do you hair, in a cave!” Ruby laughed “come on” she continued trying to stifle her giggles and standing to leave the cave “maybe we’ll find a cute Ursa for you” she laughed again at her own joke

“Shut up” Weiss said dismissively “let’s just get going”

“sure” Ruby answered, slowly getting herself under control “but uhh where to?”


	8. That Way

“That way” Weiss and Ruby proclaimed in unison although they pointed in opposite directions. Ruby pointed south, toward the city of Vale, and Weiss pointed north, toward the coast and eventually Atlas.

“Why would we go… hey stop that!” Both girls continued as one turning to glare at each other.

“There’s nothing to the north! We should go south toward Vale” Ruby said pushing past Weiss and gesturing in her preferred direction.

“We had barely made it over the continent.” Weiss retorted “We don’t know how far Vale is it’s probably weeks if not months by foot from here. Not to mention the giant mountain range we’d have to cross” Weiss added dramatically, pointing to the peaks they had found shelter in the shadow of. “We had just passed the coast. If we head north, even on foot it can’t be more then a day or two away.” 

“Great!” Ruby said throwing her hands in the air “and then what we swim back to Atlas? There’s only an entire ocean to cross how hard could it be!”

“We don’t cross the ocean you idiot, at least not right away, but there has to be a fishing village or old port town or something along the coast and once were back to civilization we can find someway home. Not to mention sleep in real rooms with real beds and..” at that moment as Weiss spoke Ruby’s stomach started growling loud enough both could hear it “…food to eat” Weiss finished rather pointedly

“Oh, that’s perfect!” Ruby responded sarcastically “Your worried about your precious life style! Can’t sleep in a cave, have to do your stupid hair all fancy blah blah blah. What if we don’t find your magic little town the continent is huge, and Vale is a seaport in its own right. It doesn’t need a bunch of port towns to support it. We might walk for A month” she emphasized the A heavily “at the most, to get to Vale, we could walk the coast for years and never stumble onto a town.”

“I’m not worried about a lifestyle!” Weiss shot back offend “I’m worried about survival. We need food and water and we need better shelter. We both know it’s only going to keep getting colder we’ll freeze if we keep living out of that cave and if we keep moving there won’t be convenient caves everywhere we stop. Besides at least on the coast we couldn’t possibly miss any town in our path. Do you have any idea where we are? We can’t just wander in a generally southward direction we could walk right past Vale and not even know it!”

“I mean it’s a big city it’d be hard to miss” Ruby replied but it was more of a defensive mumble then a confident riposte

“Not if we’re miles away in the middle of a dense forest!” Weiss shouted back “Then it’ll be easy to miss.”

“So what?” Ruby answered more calmly and with only a trace of despair “We go north, we don’t find any villages and we starve or freeze, or we go south get lost in the woods and stave or freeze?”

“I don’t love either option.” Weiss admitted matching Ruby’s tone. Both fell silent trying to find some solution until Ruby’s stomach growled again and somewhat despite herself Weiss smiled at Ruby “Well I have an idea. Why don’t we start by trying to find something to eat.”

“Sure!” Ruby said with only mildly feigned enthusiasm “That’s a great idea!”

“ok, we did some wilderness survival training at Atlas but you’re more familiar with the area. Do you know what we can eat around here?” Weiss asked cautiously hopeful, she was less confident in her ability to recognize edible plants native to Atlas then she would have liked. She didn’t like admitting it even to herself but here in Vale she would have been doing little more then guessing.

“mmm I think so.” Ruby responded equally cautiously “this is pretty far to the north of the continent but there are a couple of barriers and things I think still grow here but I have a better idea anyway”

“and what might that be?” Weiss asked skeptically although she at least managed to keep most of the disdain out of her voice

“We go back to the crashed ship.” Ruby answered, “The trip from Atlas to Vale is only about a day and half by airship but they had lunch and dinner for all what 50, 60 people on board?”

“Probably at least.” Weiss answered thoughtful and hopefully “there were only 49 people on board, the crew outside my guardsmen and huntsmen was fairly small but we expected to unload, reload and be on our way to Vacuo as quickly as possible, it’s inefficient and not how things will be done long term but Atlas wanted to show off the new ship to all three kingdoms and so we actually had cargo for all three with plans to stop at each before returning to Atlas. To make a long story short it wasn’t my responsibility so I’m not certain, but I think we had rations for the entire trip probably enough for 50 people for a little over a week.”

“That’s enough for the two of us to eat for months!” Ruby said excitedly

“Assuming it all survived.” Weiss answered playing devils advocate “but some of it must have. At the very least we can probably find something for this morning.”

“So, did we just agree on a plan?” Ruby asked in disbelief

“I think so” Weiss answered starting to walk back toward the crash “and trust me I find it just as disturbing as you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn’t look too carefully at the geography or scale here. General directions should be right but it’s entirely possible the implied distances and topography don’t make any sense if you think about it too much


	9. The Crash Site

“Well this definitely looks like the crash site but uhh where’s the crash?” Ruby asked climbing over a tree which been recently toppled and gestured around the semi-clearing they stood in. It was littered with branches and destroyed foliage. Here and there entire tree trunks lay at awkward angles with roots ripped from the ground or trunks sheared in two leaving jagged reminders of their violent destruction. And yet for all these natural signs of disaster not a scrap of unnatural destruction remained.

“I don’t know Weiss” answered “this is definitely the place that” she pointed “is the tree you were trapped in”

“You think Torchwick?” Ruby asked her hand straying towards Crescent Rose as a sudden sense of discomfort flowed through her

“Constantine” Weiss corrected “and maybe but everything is gone. Not just the crates of dust or whatever other goods might be salvageable but everything, all the pieces of scrap metal, all the bodies”

“That was probably the grim” Ruby interceded Weiss grimaced at the idea of such a disrespectful end coming to individuals she was responsible for but she also nodded in agreement. It might be a distasteful thought but it was also probably the truth. Ruby noticed Weiss’ grimace and added in as hopeful a tone as she could “or maybe, if there were any other survivors Torchwick might have taken them prisoner”

“Maybe” Weiss answered back, but neither believed it for a moment

“But that still leaves the question of all the wreckage” Weiss continued “why bother going through all the trouble of collecting all that scrap. I guess there was a lot of it, it was probably worth a decent bit as raw material but you can’t just walk to the nearest scrap yard and drop something like that off and taking the time to process it seems like more work then its worth.”

“Besides” Ruby agreed “that would seem too much like doing an honest days work to most of the Torchwick gang. Maybe they were trying to cover their tracks. Someone was going to find the crash eventually it can’t be that hard to spot from the air. Maybe they were worried people would figure out they were responsible if the wreckage was examined.”

“No, that doesn’t make any sense” Weiss thought aloud “an attack of this magnitude in this part of the world, everyone’s going to assume it was the Constantine pirates regardless. Besides Firekindling’s always made a point of taking credit for his attacks its what’s made him so infamous. We know who he is and what he does but he retreats to some secret lair and we can’t find or stop him.”

“We’ve had a similar problem with Torchwick” Ruby said nodding in understanding

“There the same person you dunce” Weiss said harshly annoyed by Ruby’s insistence in using the wrong name

“I know!” Ruby answered defensively “I was just agreeing with you jeez!”

Weiss forced herself to take a step back and a deep breath. Her instance on calling the villain Constantine was probably as strange to Ruby as Torchwick was to her she reminded herself “we need to choose one name to call him to avoid confusion.”

“He’s Roman Torchwick, I’ve been hunting him longer” Ruby said with stubborn authority

“Fine whatever” Weiss agreed not wanting to make this anymore of a fight then it already was “and he leads… the Roman empire.” She finished with an I’m so clever smile.

“Great” Ruby answered with only a trace of sarcasm “so why did the Roman empire work so hard to destroy the evidence of the airship they crashed?”

“I still don’t know but I do think this means were back to foraging” Weiss responded in a disappointed tone

“Oh yeah” Ruby said her stomach rumbling “I had completely forgot about breakfast. Ugh I wanted real food. Fine lets try this way.” she finished leading Weiss back into the woods


	10. The Berries

“Ok I’m pretty sure these are edible” Ruby said picking one of the small red berries. She had been examining the bush she pulled it from for the last few minutes as Weiss stood and watched with a dubious expression.

“You’re pretty sure?” Weiss asked with concern, she stepped up to the bush and picked one of the berries as she spoke. She examined it critically before continuing “how sure is pretty sure?”

“mmm at least 93%” Ruby replied picking more of the berries

“So there’s a 7% chance these are poisonous?!?” Weiss asked her concern growing

“No!” Ruby protested with just a hint of amusement “if this isn’t the berry I think it is then I have no idea what it is. I’m positive the plant I’m thinking of is edible and I’m 93% sure that’s what these are, which means there’s a 7% chance it’s something else. That something else could be either poisonous or edible. I figure at worst that’s a 3% chance it’s poisonous and even less likely it’s actually deadly, worst case it makes us a little sick.”

“First,” Weiss said somewhat annoyed by Ruby’s flippant attitude “even assuming your logic is valid which I’m not sure is a given, it’s at least a 3.5% chance it’s poisonous” Ruby makes a dismissive brushing away motion at the 0.5% but Weiss continues “and second the worst case is still that it’s deadly even if the odds of that are very small it is the worst thing that could happen which is why they call it the worst case. Not” Weiss added as a bit of a pointed after thought “That getting sick and having our strength sapped wouldn’t be bad enough!”

“you worry too much” Ruby laughed and popped a few of the berries into her mouth

“Wait!” Weiss shouted in vain reaching out to grab Ruby, trying to stop her but Ruby had surprised her and the berries were already in her mouth by the time Weiss reacted.

“mmm they’re a little bitter” Ruby mumbled mouth still full “Which they’re supposed to be” she added after swallowing before turning toward Weiss and spreading her arms showing she was whole and ok “See I’m fine. I told you the berries were safe. It’s nice you were concerned though.” Ruby finished with a smile

“I was only concerned because I don’t want to have to take care of you out here if you get sick or something.” Weiss said trying to cover her embarrassment “Besides it hasn’t been long enough to know whether or not they’re safe you could still get sick.”

“Oh would you just trust me, please. They’re safe I’m positive and you need to eat.” Ruby replied her tone changing from the flippant playful one she had been using to a soft reassuring plea.

Weiss gave Ruby a doubtful look before turning her attention to the berry in her hand. She carefully examined every angle then finally she closed her eyes took one last long breath and popped the berry in her mouth. She chewed slowly grimacing slightly on the first bite. She found Ruby was right about one thing the berry was fairly bitter, but it wasn’t horrible. She swallowed at last and opened her eyes to a grinning Ruby. “See? Not so bad right?” she asked.

“I’ve had better meals” Weiss started grumpily “but no it’s not too bad” she finished with a sigh. Ruby smiled even bigger and raised one arm in an excited half cheer. Seeing this Weiss added moodily “Assuming I don’t get sick or die later” Ruby’s smile faded, and she began to adopt a crestfallen look but then Weiss smiled back making the line a joke and Ruby laughed

“You’ll be fine, I’m not gonna poison you till we get back to civilization”

“not on purpose maybe” Weiss teased back

“Whatever” Ruby laughed “just help me pick a bunch of these” She turned back to the bush and began picking berries alternating between popping a berry in her mouth and placing one in her free hand. Weiss followed her lead although at a slightly more sedated pace. Before long Ruby paused and looked down at her hand now overflowing with berries “so umm we should probably collect as many as we can but what do we do with them?” she asked

Weiss picked one more berry before turning to look thoughtfully at Ruby. Slowly a smile grew across her face “How about this” she said and reached out pulling back Ruby’s hood and dumping the berries she had been collecting in her other hand into the hood.

“Hey that’s!… actually, a really good idea” Ruby admitted “here put mine back there.” She added dumping her own collection of berries into Weiss hand

“Perfect!” Weiss said as she dumped Ruby’s berries into the hood “Now just come here.” She said as she yanked the hood toward her part of the bush pulling Ruby backwards as she did.

“Hey what am I just some kind of glorified hand basket!?” Ruby protested

“Don’t be ridiculous” Weiss answered “You don’t have any glory”

“fine!” Ruby said in a very fake pout a smile still on her face as she reached sideways toward the bush and picked a berry to eat “I’ll just sit here and pick berries for me to eat and let you do all the work.”

“Good then I don’t I have to worry about you messing it up” Weiss answered. Ruby turned with an offended look toward Weiss and was shocked to see the dignified heiress sticking a playful tongue out at her. Ruby open her mouth to respond a smile creeping across her face as she did, but no words came out. Instead Weiss grabbed the hood once more giving it another yank and spinning Ruby back around as Weiss teased more “See you’re already messing it up stay facing that way. Dolt.”

Ruby laughed “whatever you say, Ice Queen”


	11. Amazing

“So uhhh did we ever decided where we were going?” Ruby asked adjusting her cape. She and Weiss had picked the handful of berry bushes in the area clean and filled her hood to capacity. Even with as many berries as they had picked they really didn’t weigh that much and in comparison to other things she was used to lugging around all day, such as Crescent Rose and all its ammo, Ruby probably wouldn’t have even noticed except her hood wasn’t exactly designed for carrying loads. The relatively minor weight of the berry stash was enough to cause the hood to hang awkwardly and pull at her in uncomfortable ways. Still, she had agreed with Weiss that trying to sit down for an entire meal of wild berries didn’t sound particularly appetizing and instead they decided they would simply snack on the berries throughout the day. The only problem they had found was that Ruby would have to deal with more weight longer but even that wasn’t so much a problem really as it was a nuisance. _Which_ Ruby thought as the woman who had been confidently forging ahead turned to face her _is probably about how Weiss would describe me just about now. Just as I thought we were starting to get along too!_  
Weiss was prepared to respond angrily to Ruby’s pestering but as she turned, she realized they hadn’t decided where they were going. She had been headed back to where they had crashed in the forest, but she had started that way almost unconsciously. It felt, somehow, a little like a natural home base to return to and on top of that something about it still bothered her. It just seemed right to her that they should return and investigate, but they hadn’t agreed on that. What’s more returning there probably served little purpose in their long-term survival. It didn’t bring them any closer to home and however much it might “feel” like a home base, if they were planning to settle down in a location and wait/hope for rescue the cave they had stayed in before made for a much better place to anchor themselves. “I..!” Weiss started aggressively but she made herself stop take a deep breath and continue more calmly. “I was headed back to where we crashed. I apologize I shouldn’t make unilateral decisions like that without consulting you” especially when I can’t really justify those decisions she added silently to herself, continuing aloud “I’m just use to being in a command position and making decisions on my own” she felt a little like she was making excuses which she hated but it was also the truth  
“oh well uh I uhh..” Ruby replied she had prepared herself for another shouting match and Weiss not simply not yelling but actually apologizing had put her off balance “I mean it’s not really a big deal” she mumbled “but uhh it would probably be best if you at least tell me what you’re doing, so you know, I know what’s going on and plus then if I have to I can just disagree and you won’t have to consult me.” She had gained confidence as she spoke, and she finished in an almost cheerful tone delighted with the simple nonconfrontational solution she had found.  
A corner of Weiss’s mind insisted that was the stupidest thing she had ever heard, Ruby had basically just said as long as Weiss consulted her, she didn’t have to consult her. Yet, that wasn’t exactly what she had said, there was a simple almost pure logic to it, just do what comes natural but keep me informed and I’ll tell you when I think you’re wrong. Not yell at you or be angry because you were wrong but just let you know I don’t agree and then figure it out from there. That’s what Ruby had really just said, and it was a somewhat incredible thing to say even if the words used to say it weren’t the most eloquent. “Ok, that actually makes a lot of sense.” Weiss answered, the part of her which insisted it was stupid snickered at the irony of her own comment but she ignored that part of her it was a part which ensured she maintained her dignity and authority over people like Ruby and it was of precious little use in the circumstances they found themselves in.  
“ok good but um this is gonna be one of those times I have to disagree with you” Ruby answered somewhere between amused and anxiously “why do you want to go back there?”  
“I… just wanted to look around some more. I can’t get it out of my head. It just doesn’t make any sense not just why but how. The entire crash site empty, a massive air ship completely gone in one night. I don’t even remember any signs of things being dragged away, although I wasn’t really looking. At first, I was confused about why Consta…er…Torchwick would do something like that but now I’m more worried about how he pulled it off. It just, none of it makes sense and honestly” her tone changed from one of confusion and frustration to something darker “I don’t know what else to do. I still don’t think heading for Vale will work, without a better idea of where we are there’s just no way we actually manage to stumble upon it but you’re also right we’re no more likely to find anyone along the coast, not soon enough to matter anyway.”  
Ruby looked at Weiss with worry this was the first time she’d heard fear in the other girl. She suspected fear had played a role in some of Weiss’ other responses but it had always manifested itself as anger or frustration but now she was showing Ruby true genuine fear and Ruby was amazed by how much it hurt that she had no words of encouragement to relieve Weiss with. “Yeah, I haven’t been able to come up with any new ideas either” Ruby agreed in a similar tone. A moment passed as each stared into the other’s desperate eyes but then Ruby shook herself simply refusing to succumb to despair and continued in a hopeful tone “Well maybe if we check out the crash site we’ll find some answers that will help us get home”  
“hmpf” Wiess half chuckled somehow already feeling more hopeful herself “maybe we will”  
“Right well then away we go!” Ruby cheered taking the lead from Weiss and marching back the way they had come.  
_Ruby Rose_ Weiss thought to herself turning with a smile to follow the younger girl _you are amazing in lot of ways, amazingly obnoxious, amazingly annoying and you seem to have an amazing ability to see the bright side of things… and to drag me along to see it too, no matter how much I kick or scream along the way. _She shook her head laughing silently at her own thoughts as she headed off after Ruby.__


End file.
